In recent years, there has been an astronomical increase in the popularity and adoption of cryptocurrencies around the world. Much of the increased acceptance can be attributed to the security and decentralization derived from Blockchain technology, reinforcing a positive long-term outlook of crypto. Many small to mid-scale businesses as well as large organizations are already accepting cryptocurrency including Microsoft, Tesla, and Wikipedia.
There are three primary ways of acquiring cryptocurrency: buying on a P2P exchange platform, accepting them as a means of payment, or through mining — using a combination of dedicated hardware and software. In this article, we’ll cover some basic information about cryptocurrency mining software.
Before proceeding, you should know that aside from mining, there are other easy ways to buy bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. There are a variety of different cryptocurrency exchange and P2P platforms where you can buy bitcoin and other cryptos. It is especially recommended to check out Remitano, a global P2P crypto exchange platform to make your purchase.
You can also check out the 20 top platforms to buy Bitcoin in Nigeria.
What is cryptocurrency mining?
Cryptocurrency mining is the backbone of the blockchain network; it is essential to the development and performance of the whole network. Mining is the process of creating and verifying blocks of transactions on the blockchain network. It involves validating transactions between users and recording them on the blockchain public ledger. It plays an important role in the maintenance of security and stability of the P2P decentralized network. Mining is also responsible for the generation and addition of new coins into the existing circulating supply. This serves as a reward to miners in return for their effort in maintaining the blockchain network.
Cryptocurrency mining involves solving series of complex algorithms and mathematical problems using dedicated hardware with large computational power such as GPUs (Graphical processing units), ASICs (Application-specific integrated circuits), and FPGAs (Field-programmable gate array) in combination with advanced software with negligible tolerance to errors and inaccuracy.
Crypto mining can be done solo or in a pool (where individual miners pool resources together to achieve a high processing power). It is also worth noting that not all cryptocurrencies are minable. Some cryptos can’t be mined and can only be minted. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin are some examples of cryptocurrencies that can be mined.
Importance of Cryptocurrency mining software
While the main computational process is done by the hardware, the software serves as the enabler. The hardware’s input and output are processed by the software component. This software delivers the hardware’s output to the network while also receiving the finished task of other miners on the network. Furthermore, the software generates the proof of work and provides the latest statistics about the blockchain network. It provides stats such as hash rate, temperature, and power consumption. It connects individual miner’s rigs to the network while it also connects individual mining rigs in a mining pool.
Best crypto mining software – 2021
There is a large array of mining software available presently and it can be a quite difficult task to choose the right one when building a mining rig. When you decide to get mining software, some of the features you should consider include mining speed, security, flexibility, compatibility with other mining equipment, the community among others. Below is a list of the top-rated mining software available in 2021.
- CGMiner
CGMiner is an open-source software application written in C—programming language. It provides cross-platform support; thus, it supports Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and many others. It also offers cross-hardware compatibility making it compatible with a range of hardware equipment including ASIC, GPU, and FPGA. CGMiner is highly customizable, supports multi-pool mining, and provides a variety of smart features such as full monitoring, remote interface, overclocking, among others.
Furthermore, CGMiner comes with an advanced block detection feature and scalable network scheduler that allow easy scalability of hash rate with no delay. It also prevents stale work submission during network outages. Additionally, there is a huge community working on the project, making sure improvements and updates are consistent.
- BFGMiner
Designed specifically for ASICs and FPGAs hardware, BFGMiner offers superior customization such as the ability to tweak any aspect of the mining cycle, greater overclocking, dynamic timing, remote interface, and many more. It also features advanced cross-platform functionality, LLVM OpenCL/mesa mining, and PCI bus ID reordering ADL device.
BFGMiner also integrates a watchdog thread that can restart idle threads or stop failed reconnects. It also displays network statistics including temperature, efficiency, accepts, rejects, requests, fan control, and many more.
- MultiMiner
MultiMiner is GUI-based mining software created using the BFGMiner mining platform. It is a beginner-friendly mining software with multiple configurations. MultiMiner provides detailed interactive instruction on each mining step and strives to guide users on the whole mining process. It includes a clean GUI, automated hardware detection, the ability to choose a desire to mine, and offers compatibility with different mining hardware solutions. MultiMiner also packs more features including detection of network devices, remote monitoring, the option to select a mining strategy, and tooltips to give hints on complex mining terms.
- EasyMiner
EasyMiner is a user-friendly GUI-based mining software with enormous versatility. On start-up, EasyMiner boots into a “Money-maker” mode, which creates a Litecoin mining environment with the native CPU. It offers cross-platform support, provides an intuitive dashboard, an option to change network settings, and many more. EasyMiner is compatible with GPU, ASIC, FGPA, CPU mining hardware. It also comes with NHIL (Network Hardware ID Layer) protocol, which gives an added level of security to the pool architecture.
Conclusion
Crypto mining is another way of earning bitcoin if you don’t want to buy BTC in Nigeria. Cryptocurrency mining software is an important part of the crypto mining operation. The software is the medium through which the hardware connects the blockchain network. It is also used to display and monitor the activity of the network. The featured software above was selected after extensive research and review of the available mining software. We made the list after considering factors such as ease of use, customization, advanced tools, and many more.
